Kristiina Ojuland

Political and state figure of Estonia, Minister of foreign affairs of Estonia from 2002-2005.

Kristiina Ojuland: “In my point of view, Azerbaijan has received a lot of international support for the settlement of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh during the recent years. It is very important that the international community supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of your republic.”
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Member of the European Parliament Kriistina Ojuland: “Azerbaijan did not violate the norms of international law in the case of extradition of Ramil Safarov”

Kriistina Ojuland, a member of the Estonian parliament,  stated that the extradition of Ramil Safarov was carried out in accordance with international legal norms. This fact was confirmed also by the alliance of European liberals and democrats of the European Parliament. According to APA, in the Europe-Azerbaijan society, K. Ojuland stated that the ALDE group of the European Parliament decided not to sign a resolution on the issue of R. Safarov. According to her, the pardoning of Safarov can further inflame the conflict between the two countries: “Unfortunately, this issue can make the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Nagorno Karabakh issue even worse.”

A member of the Estonian parliament also said that Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the surrounding areas, are an integral part of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized at the international level: “This should be the basis of the position of the European Parliament. The fact, that there is no result in 20 years, shows that the Minsk Group should reconsider this issue. For creating a balance in the negotiation process, the EU must remove France from participating in the Minsk Group. Only in this case can be a historic chance to solve the frozen conflict.”

Kristiina Ojuland aslo said that the European Parliament supports the development of the South Caucasus and is aware of the high potential of Azerbaijan. She also stressed that the constructive cooperation between Brussels and Baku is based on common values.

Source: apa.az

European Parliament condemns 9 lawmakers for their visits to Azerbaijan

The European Parliament ethics committee is set to censure a group of nine lawmakers who are suspected of accepting favors from Azerbaijan during an electoral observation mission there in October last year, the EurActive.com portal reported Tuesday.

Kriistina Ojuland of Estonia, Jacek Włosowicz of Poland, Slavi Binev of Bulgaria, Jirí Maštálka of the Czech Republic, Ivo Vajgl of Slovenia, Alexandra Thein of Germany, Hannu Takkula of Finland, Oleg Valjalo of Croatia, and Nick Griffin of the UK all flew to Azerbaijan last October to monitor the elections.

However, they purportedly “forgot” to tell Parliament that they had been invited by the Azeri government and did not declare the trip on their website, as required by the Assembly’s new code of conduct.The committee is also questioning whether the European Parliament members were rewarded for this task, on top of the paid trip.

After their mission, the group produced a report describing the elections as “free and fair.” Embarrassingly, their assessment was radically different from that of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which found “serious problems” related to freedom of expression and assembly.

In a report published in November, the European Stability Initiative, a think-tank, had already rung the alarm about the way the Azeri elections were being monitored more generally.

According to the European Parliament’s new code of conduct, adopted last July, any kind of present, invitation to a football game, show or trip must be mentioned on the lawmaker’s website if its price exceeds 150 euros.

“We are happy to see that the European Parliament actually is doing something about the caviar diplomacy snaked in Brussels,” said European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (ANCA Europe) Executive Director Bedo Demirdjian. “I hope they will open their eyes on falsifications of history and facts that are being committed by Azerbaijan.”

On October 9, presidential elections took place in Azerbaijan, at which current head of state Ilham Aliyev won with 84.54% of the vote. In the second place is the single candidate from the opposition National Council of Democratic Forces Jamil Hasanli. He scored 5.53% of the vote.

A joint statement of the observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly states that the presidential elections in Azerbaijan were held in conditions of restriction of freedom of expression and assembly. In his turn, David Lidington, Minister for European Affairs of Great Britain, said that the British Foreign Ministry shared the opinion of the OSCE / ODIHR that the presidential elections in Azerbaijan did not meet the commitments of this country to the OSCE. The opinion of the OSCE and the United Kingdom was also shared by the US State Department and the European Parliament.

PACE and the EP gave a positive assessment to the elections, calling them “honest, transparent and fair.”

The Washington Post compiled a list of nine “Worst Ideas of 2013”, which included the recent presidential elections in Azerbaijan.

American intelligence in its turn has obtained evidence of bribery of MPs of the PACE monitoring group, who watched the presidential elections held in Azerbaijan on October 9.

In May 2012, the non-profit organization “European Stability Initiative” published a scandalous report “Caviar diplomacy”. The report says that the friendly members of the Council of Europe of Azerbaijan turn a blind eye to human rights violations, receiving in return from Baku sturgeon caviar, silk carpets, gold and silver ornaments and other rich gifts.

Source: panarmenian.net